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HISTORICAL ADDRESS 



BY 

William F. Whitcher 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

ON THE OCCASION OF THE 

One Hundred and Fiftieth 

ANNIVERSARY OF THE SETTLEMENT 

OF THE Town of Haverhill 
New Hampshire 

SEPTEMBER 20, 1912 



William F; Whitcher 



Privately Printed 

1918 



n 

7 






ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH 

Anniversary Observance 
AND Dedication of 
Soldiers' Monument 

AT 

HAVERHILL, N. H. 
SEPTEMBER 20, 1912 



Historical Address by William F. Whitcher 

We celebrate today the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
of the settlement of the town of Haverhill, the earliest settled, 
in point of time, in northern or central New Hampshire. It 
is even yet a new town as compared with the original Haverhill 
in Essex and Suffolk, England, which was already old when, in 
1639, one of its sons, John Ward, graduate of Cambridge, only 
eighteen miles distant, came to New England and became the 
first minister of Pentucket on the Merrimac, which was erected 
in 1641, by the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, into a 
township, and given the name of Haverhill in honor of the birth- 
place of its first minister. 



The English Haverhill is a quaint old parish and market town, 
picturesquely situated, with its one long street, in a valley on a 
branch line of the Great Eastern railway, with two manufactur- 
ing industries, one for cotton, the other for silk fabrics, and with 
a population of about 4,500. The bustling, prosperous, manu- 
facturing city on the Merrimac, with its 40,000 population, was 
known as "Old Haverhill" within the memory of many here 
today, and our Haverhill, its namesake, was and still is new in 
comparison with that municipality, which, more than twenty 
years ago, celebrated its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. 

Our Haverhill, however, with its one hundred and fifty years 
of life, takes on the dignity of age when compared with the 
three other Haverhills on the world's map — one in Lawrence 
County, Ohio, another in Marshall County, Iowa, and still another 
in Butler County, Kansas, each a small farming township, and 
each with a population of less than four hundred. 

Towns as well as individuals have a character and individuality 
of their own, the result of varied influences. In its one hundred 
and fifty years of life Haverhill has had its own peculiar charac- 
teristics. It has differed from its neighbors. It still differs. 
It is not Bath, Coventry- Benton, or Piermont; it has been, and 
is, unhke its twin sister, Newbury, Vermont. It is Haverhill. 
Its people have been Haverhill people. Its history is peculiarly 
its own. 

Its settlement was not an accident. For a period of fifty years 
and more previous to such settlement, there was on the part 
of the colonists in northeastern Massachusetts and south- 
eastern New Hampshire knowledge of a Coos country on the 
Connecticut, possessing a soil of marvelous fertility, forests of 
heavy and valuable growth, and streams furnishing abundant 
fish and ample water-power for mills. Trappers had visited it, 
captives had been carried by Indians through it to Canada, so 
that as early as 1704 Penhallow mentions a French- Indian fort, 
and corn planted at Coos high up on the Connecticut river. Rev. 
John Williams, who in that same year was carried, with more 
than a hundred others, captive from Deerfield, Mass., to Canada, 
in his narrative published some years later, speaks of Coos as 
if it were a region well known. 

After the settlement at Charlestown, or "Number Four," — 
begun in 1748, — had become established, the question of the 



settlement of Coos began to be agitated. In 1751 hunters came 
up the river examining the land on both sides, as far north as 
the mouth of the Ammonoosuc. A year later John Stark and 
three others who were hunting on Bakers river, in what is now 
Rumney, were surprised by a party of Indians, and Stark and 
one of his companions, Amos Eastman, were captured and taken 
to Canada. They passed through the Coos meadows at Little 
Oxbow, both on their enforced journey and on their return a 
few months later. That same year, 1752, application was made 
to Governor Wentworth by men from Hampton and vicinity for 
charters for four towns each six miles square in Coos, and in 
bringing the matter to the attention of the General Court the 
governor alluded to the forfeiture of previous grants in the 
same section. Protests and threats were made from Canada and 
the charters were not given. 

In the spring of 1753 an expedition of twenty-one men under 
command of Colonel Zaccheus Lovewell, with John Stark for guide, 
was sent out by the General Court "to view the Coos Country." 
The route taken was up the Pemigewasset and Bakers rivers 
and over the divide to the Connecticut. The path which they 
marked out was followed the next year, 1754, by Capt. Peter 
Powers, with a company sent to ascertain if the French had 
advanced into the Connecticut Valley. They left Concord June 
15, reached the river at what is now Piermont June 25, and fol- 
lowed it as far north as Northumberland, which they reached 
July 2. 

In the early spring of 1760 Thomas Blanchard was ordered by 
Governor Wentworth to make a survey of Connecticut river north- 
ward from Charlestown, and at the end of every six miles, on 
a straight line, to set a boundary on each side the river for a 
township. He made this survey in March, going up the river on 
the ice, and his survey extended to the mouth of the Ammonoosuc 
and included nine pairs of towns, the two northernmost being 
about seven miles in length, instead of six. 

All this was in anticipation of settlement, but the dangers 
which threatened from the north had made actual settlement 
unadvisable. For a period of more than seventy years England 
and France had been in almost unbroken warfare with each other, 
and the English settlements in New England had been, during 
nearly all this period, subject to attack by the French and their 



savage Indian allies from the north. But with the surrender of 
Montreal to the British in September, 1760, and the consequent 
downfall of French Empire on the American continent, the 
dangers which served for a period of a quarter of a century to 
prevent the settlement of the coveted Connecticut Valley 
region, especially that of lower Coos, were practically ended. 

A regiment of New Hampshire troops, under command of 
Colonel John Goffe of Bedford, was sent in the spring of 1760 
to aid in the completion of the conquest of Canada. It took 
part in the siege of Montreal and was present at its surrender. 
Four officers of this regiment were destined to have a large influ- 
ence in the early history of the towns of Haverhill and New- 
bury. Lieutenant-Colonel Jacob Bayley, Captain John Hazen, 
First Lieutenant Jacob Kent, all of Hampstead, and Second 
Lieutenant Timothy Bedel of Salem, on their return home after 
the surrender, passed through lower Coos. The Oxbow meadows 
attracted their attention, and they spent several days examining 
the adjacent country. They determined to secure if possible 
charters of two townships on opposite sides of the river, in which 
they might themselves make settlement, and on their arrival 
home they lost no time in applying to the governor for such char- 
ters. Bayley and Hazen stood high in favor with the colonial 
government for valuable military service rendered and each had 
influential friends whom the governor wished to please. They 
obtained in the winter of 1760-61 promise of the desired grants, 
a promise which, however, was not fulfilled until May 18, 1763, 
when Haverhill was granted to John Hazen, Jacob Bayley, 
Timothy Bedel, Jacob Kent and 72 associates, and Newbury was 
granted the same day to Jacob Bayley, John Hazen, Jacob Kent, 
Timothy Bedel and 72 others, the names of many of whom 
also appeared in the list of the grantees of Haverhill. 

These were not the men, however, to wait for the charters. 
They had the governor's promise and they at once acted. Hazen 
and Bayley came up in the early summer of 1761, looked over 
the ground more carefully than they had done before, agreed 
that the former should settle on the east side of the river, the 
latter on the west, and at once began to arrange definite plans. 
Bayley went on to Crown Point on military business and Hazen 
returned to Hampstead by way of Charlestown, where he engaged 
several men to come to Coos, cut and sack the hay on the 



cleared ground on the Oxbows. In the meantime a stock of 
cattle, mostly young cows and steers, were purchased, and in 
August Michael Johnston, John Pettie and Abraham Webb 
started with these from Hampstead by way of Charlestown and 
following the line of spotted trees made by Blanchard the previous 
year reached their destination in October. The settlement of 
Haverhill was begun. These three spent the exceptionally long 
and cold winter here in an improvised shelter feeding the hay to 
the cattle, and breaking the steers to the yoke, that they might 
be ready for the plough and the other work in the spring. 

When the spring came Captain Hazen was on the ground with 
a number of men and materials for a sawmill and gristmill, which 
were erected on Poole Brook, on the site where Swasey's Mills 
stood later, and but a few rods distant from the spot where we 
meet today. He brought with him Uriah Morse and his wife 
from Northfield, Mass., the first family settling in town. Morse 
built his house on Poole Brook, near what was later the almshouse, 
now the residence of W. H. Ingalls. He furnished board for 
Captain Hazen, and the men who came with him, among whom 
were Joshua Howard, Jaasiel Harriman, Simeon Stevens, Thomas 
Johnson and Timothy Bedel. 

Howard, Harriman and Stevens came direct from Haverhill, 
Mass., by way of Bakers river, over the divide into what later 
became Coventry, and down the Oliverian instead of taking the 
usual route by way of Charlestown. These men all became promi- 
nent in the life of Coos. Howard settled later on the island which 
bears his name, — now a part of the county farm, — where he lived 
to the advanced age of 99: Harriman after a few years became 
the pioneer settler of Bath: Stevens, a grantee of both Haverhill 
and Newbury, went to Piermont, where his descendants became 
prominent. Johnson remained in Haverhill but a short time, 
going to Newbury, where he became next, perhaps, to Jacob 
Bayley, its most distinguished and influential citizen. Timothy 
Bedel, except for the few years he lived in Bath, of which town 
he was a grantee as well as of Haverhill, was one of the pioneer 
leaders who gave Haverhill its enviable reputation from the first. 

Captain Hazen had reasons for beginning his settlement prior 
to obtaining his charter. Other parties, one Oliver Willard in 
particular, were casting covetous eyes on the section, and endeav- 
oring to forestall him in securing possession of the broad meadows. 



6 

He took no chances. He believed in possession as constituting 
several, if not indeed the proverbial nine points of law, 

John Hazen was a remarkable man. As founder of the town 
his career and character merit, even in the brief time allotted to 
these exercises, more than the mere passing attention which has 
heretofore been given them. He was born in Haverhill, Mass., 
March 5, 1727, the son of Moses and Abigail (White) Hazen, 
and was fourth in descent from Edward Hazen, who came from 
England and settled in Rowley, Mass., about 1640. He lived in 
that part of Haverhill known as Timberlane, which, after the 
establishment of the boundary line between New Hampshire 
and Massachusetts in 1741, became a part of the town of Hamp- 
stead, incorporated in 1749. He was active in the settlement and 
development of the new town, served on its board of selectmen, 
and rendered in the French and Indian Wars important military 
service. He had the genuine soldier spirit. He was a lieutenant 
in the company of Captain Jacob Bayley, his townsman, in the 
Crown Point expedition of 1757. In 1758, he was captain in 
Colonel Hart's regiment, and in 1760 he was, as previously noted, 
captain in Colonel Goffe's regiment, of which his friend Bayley 
was lieutenant-colonel. He was a man of undaunted courage, 
of great physical strength, and though his educational advantages 
had been limited, of wise foresight. When it came to securing 
his charter, he prudently had inserted the names of grantees 
whom he knew would not become actual settlers, and whose 
rights in the township he could doubtless secure for himself at a 
fair price and without great difficulty. Thus John Hazen, Jr., 
who at the time was not more than six or seven years of age, 
was a grantee. Robert Peaslee, a brother-in-law, Moses and Wil- 
liam Hazen, brothers, were others. His sister had married Moses 
Moores, and the names of Edmund, John and Benjamin Moores, 
as well as that of his father-in-law, John Swett, appear in the 
list of grantees. Nathaniel Merrill, his future son-in-law, was 
another. With the exception of Merrill none of these grantees 
ever became residents of Haverhill. Some of their shares Hazen 
secured immediately, and at a meeting of the proprietors held 
in September, 1763, it was voted that he choose the house and 
meadow lots of five shares before the other grantees should draw 
their lots. His choice was doubtless already made, as he named 
the Meadow lots numbers 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, all in one plot, about 



a mile square, the well-known Oxbow, Hazen, Swasey farm, now 
owned by Moses A. Meader. The house lots were adjoining. 
The proprietors reserved the mill privileges for their own use. 
Later he purchased other rights, for as the owner of ten shares 
he was authorized Jan. 4, 1771, by the proprietors to hold "his 
proportion of land in a body between the Oxbow and the east line 
of the township according to a plan then submitted." This 
trail, a mile wide and nearly five miles in length, passed soon 
afterwards into the hands of John Fisher of Salem, Mass., and 
was known during the Revolutionary period and later as the 
Fisher farm. It was a tract covered with the finest of pine, and 
remained for a quarter of a century an unbroken wilderness until 
the pines began to be felled and the tract was opened up to settle- 
ment. 

His foresight and sound judgment are seen again in that he 
was instrumental in securing as settlers an exceptionally desir- 
able class of men, most of whom were not numbered among the 
grantees. I mention the names of some of those who settled 
prior to 1770. Timothy Bedel, distinguished soldier in the War 
for Independence; John Page, the father of Governor and 
United States Senator John Page, and of Samuel Page; John 
White, Joshua Poole, James Bayley, Maxi Hazeltine, Elisha Lock, 
Uriah Stone, great-grandfather of President Chester A. Arthur; 
James Woodward, Jonathan Elkins, Ezekiel Ladd with his six 
brothers, and whose monument abides, — Ladd street; Jonathan 
Goodwin, Edward Bayley, James Abbott, Joseph Hutchins, 
Simeon Goodwin, John Hurd, William Eastman, Joshua Hay- 
ward, Timothy Barron, Nathaniel Weston, Asa Porter, Andrew 
Savage Crocker, Charles Johnston, Ephraim Wesson, James 
Corliss, Jonathan Ring, Thomas Simpson, Amos Kimball and 
Charles Bailey. 

These were men who would have had marked influence in 
any community. Let me emphasize the fact that Captain Hazen 
was wise in his choice of associates. He was not attempting the 
formation of a community in which a single personality, and 
that his own, should be dominant. Some of these men were 
his superiors in culture and in qualities of leadership, and none 
recognized this more clearly than he, but they were men, who 
could secure for the town county-seat honors, who could establish 
schools and churches, who could give the new town enviable 



8 

prominence, and they did it. From the beginning Haverhill 
was the first town in Coos. These men mentioned, and such as 
these, gave tone and character to the Haverhill of their day, 
and the Haverhill of subsequent years. 

They were of sturdy English stock, of Puritan ideals and train- 
ing, of frugal habits and virtuous life. They had the genuine 
pioneer spirit and possessed the racial hunger for land. Among 
them were men of liberal culture, like John Hurd and Asa Porter, 
both graduates of Harvard; men of devout piety and rugged 
integrity, like John Page and Charles Johnston; of indomitable 
purpose^ like Ezekiel Ladd, James Woodward, Timothy Barron 
and Jonathan Elkins, and the War of the Revolution proved 
their self-sacrificing, undying patriotism. 

The character of a town is of course influenced by soil and 
climate, by mountain, lake and river, and Haverhill has been 
fortunate in these ; but underlying these in any town or commu- 
nity are the lives and characters of its men and its women, and 
Haverhill has also been fortunate in these, doubly fortunate in the 
character of John Hazen and those who joined with him in her 
founding, establishing her schools and churches, building her 
roads, and transforming her forests into fertile fields. 

Those early days were strenuous days. The roads were little 
more than mere bridlepaths. The homes were in log cabins 
with few conveniences and no luxuries; household furniture 
except in rare cases was of the rudest; life was filled with hard- 
ships which were borne cheerfully, since these settlers beheved in 
the future of their town. They lived the simple life, and in 
none of the early records do we find complaints of the high cost 
of living. 

We get a glimpse of the manner of life in the inventory of 
Captain Hazen's estate, filed Oct. 22, 1774, shortly after his death. 
He had been in Haverhill twelve years. His Oxbow farm had 
been the first settled, and this had just been sold to John Fisher. 
He had real estate remaining to the value £388 10s. There 
were notes of hand amounting to £360 6s. The schedule of per- 
sonal property is given in minute detail. Dress was evidently 
not a fad with the captain. His wardrobe consisted of "a half 
worn brown coat; 2 pair breeches: one old velvet waistcoat: 
one old hat: one old surtout: 2 striped linen shirts: one cotton 
and linen shirt: 2 pairs stockings: 2 pairs shoes: 1 pair knee 



9 

buckles : 1 pair silver shoe buckles : 1 pair stone sleeve buttons : one 
silver watch," which alone was valued at £4, a total value of £10 
or less than $50. It was a wardrobe evidently for use rather 
than for ornament. The household furniture is indicative of 
the style of living. It included feather beds and pillows : bed- 
steads and cords, blankets, sheets, coverlets, case of drawers, 
writing desk, kettles, frying pans, skillets, andirons, flatirons, 
pewter dishes and plates, 6 knives and forks, 3 silver teaspoons, 

4 chairs, 1 looking glass, 1 tin canister, shovel and tongs, under 
beds and crockery ware, all of a total value £32 4s or less than 
$150. And this was not poverty either, for we find in the barns 
and fields, 3 yoke of oxen, 6 yoke of steers, 8 cows, 5 heifers and 

5 calves, 4 horses, 4 colts, 12 swine and crops gathered, including 
60 tons hay, 94 bushels wheat, 148 bushels oats, 90 bushels 
corn, 50 bushels potatoes, 28 bushels rye, 15 bushels peas, with 
flax and flax seed, clover seed, herds grass seed, etc., valued at 
£358 7s 6d or upwards of $1,700, by the appraisers Charles John- 
ston, Andrew Savage Crocker and Joseph Hutchins. There was a 
contrast between the value of the contents of the barns and gran- 
aries and the contents of the dwelling-house. It must have been 
the simple life, and yet the estate of Captain Hazen was one of 
the largest in town, the population of which according to a 
census taken the previous year numbered 387. The house erected 
by him prior to 1770 still stands on the farm, at the foot of the 
hill road leading from the main road to the meadow, probably the 
oldest in town, and is his only material monument. There is 
no Hazen family to erect to his memory a monument of stone and 
bronze, nor can his grave, the location of which is unknown, 
though probably in the Oxbow cemetery in Newbury, be marked 
with fitting memorial tablet, but his memory should not perish 
from the town. 

He is not, however, without descendants. He married Nov. 30, 
1752, Anne Swett of Haverhill, who died in Haverhill Sept. 29, 
1765. Of their two children, John went, after the death of his 
father, with his Uncle William to New Brunswick. Sarah, the 
eldest, born in Hampstead March 12, 1753, married, June, 1771, 
Maj. Nathaniel Merrill. Of their twelve daughters, ten married: 
Sarah, Colonel Aaron Hibbard of Bath; Elizabeth, Captain Moses 
Swasey of Newbury; Mary, Nathaniel Runnells of Piermont; 
Nancy, Obadiah Swasey of Haverhill; Charlotte, Isaac Pearsons 



10 

of Haverhill; Lucinda, Abner Bayley of Newbury; Ruth, James 
Morse of Corinth, Vt.; Hannah, Gov. John Page of Haverhill; 
Mehetabel, Thomas Morse of Newbury; Louisa, Samuel Page of 
Haverhill. I need not say that John Hazen has numerous de- 
scendants, more numerous probably than those of his friend and 
associate in the settlement of Coos, Jacob Bayley. Some of them 
are here today, some descended from both these pioneers. Some 
of these families have written themselves large into the life 
of the town. Haverhill owes it to herself to provide some fitting 
memorial to John Hazen, preeminently her founder. 

I have not time to speak at length of Captain Hazen's asso- 
ciates, whom I have already mentioned, and their immediate 
successors, who through faith, dauntless courage, untiring 
energy, endured hardships, subdued the wilderness, wrought 
righteousness, escaped the sword of foreign and savage foes, 
"out of weakness were made strong, waxed vaUant in fight, 
turned to flight the armies of the aliens." They made Haverhill 
beautiful for situation, first, in point of civic, educational, official 
and political influence, among the towns of the Coos section. 

Immediately after the grant of the charter in 1763 the pro- 
prietors took steps to hasten the settlement of the town. Two 
votes passed at a meeting held in Plaistow Sept. 26, 1763, are 
significant : 

" Voted that the Proprietors of Haverhill join with the Pro- 
prietors of Newbury in paying for preaching one or two months 
this fall." 

"Voted that the Proprietors of Haverhill join with the Pro- 
prietors of Newbury to look out and clear a road through Haver- 
hill and that Col. Jacob Bayley, Capt. John Hazen and Lieut. 
Jacob Kent be a committee to look out and clear said road." 

At a meeting held in Hampstead, Sept. 10, 1764, the last to 
be held away from the settlement, the proprietors again voted 
that they "assist the town and proprietors of Newbury in hiring 
preaching for six months next coming, and that Captain Timothy 
Bedel be a committee to join committee in Newbury for this 
purpose, the preaching to be in Newbury in Cowass. " 

Under this first vote Mr. Silas Moody, a recent graduate of 
Harvard College, came to Coos and preached for three Sabbaths 
in Newbury and two in Haverhill. In 1764 Rev. Peter Powers 
of Hollis spent the summer in the two towns, preaching in houses 



11 

and barns to the acceptance of the settlers, and in September 
of that year a church of fifteen members hving on both sides 
the river was organized. 

The first town meeting held in Haverhill was on January 
25, 1765. This was a special meeting, and the substance of 
the only four votes passed was, to "join with Newbury to give 
Mr. Peter Powers a call as their gospel minister," to pay as 
Haverhill's part of his salary £35 6d and one third part of the 
expense of installation, to deliver at his door each year thirty 
cords of wood, cut and corded, and to name Timothy Bedel, 
John Taplin and Elisha Lock a committee to wait upon Mr. 
Powers to carry into effect the action taken, and ask the coop- 
eration of the proprietors in the affair. 

This salary of the Rev. Peter Powers was the first money 
raised by the town of Haverhill by taxation. It antedated 
appropriations for roads, schools, or even the salaries of the 
town officers. Why? These first settlers of Haverhill were of 
Puritan stock, were God-fearing men, but they were not religious 
devotees. Indeed, few were professing Christians. John Hazen 
was not, Joshua Howard was not, Uriah Morse was not, Jon- 
athan Goodwin was not; but their first corporate act as a 
town was to establish a town church, which remained such for 
a period of more than forty years. 

There were other reasons for this action than those purely 
religious. These proprietors and first settlers wished to give 
their town character and standing, to offer inducements to a 
desirable class of families to make their homes in a wilderness. 
The minister of the New England town in the 18th century 
was its first citizen. He was the recognized authority on ques- 
tions of religion and morals, the arbiter in matters educational 
and social, if not indeed political. There were no newspapers, 
few books in the new settlements; schools had not been estab- 
lished. Stated worship on the Sabbath furnished the only 
opportunity for the scattered families to meet, exchange greet- 
ings, hear the latest news from the old home towns, discuss 
quietly among themselves matters of local importance, as well 
as obtain religious instruction. To this early Newbury and 
Haverhill church families walked five miles and more. Every- 
body "went to meeting." They sat on rude benches and listened 
reverently, or indifferently, to long prayers and still longer 



12 

sermons; but this was their one weekly outing, their only vaca- 
tion from strenuous toil and labor. The Sabbath meeting was 
newspaper, library, club, as well as the house of God. The 
fathers took their first corporate step and raised their first money 
wisely. They might not have been devotedly pious, most of 
them were not, but they recognized in the church and its minis- 
ter not only an institution which would attract settlers, give 
character to the community, but a saving salt which would 
prevent the degeneration of their settlement into the primitive 
conditions of savagery. 

This established church, however, did not meet with unani- 
mous approval. There were Episcopalians as well as Congrega- 
tionalists among the early settlers. The two most influential of 
the former class were Colonels Johnjiurd and Asa Porter. In 
October, 1764, the proprietors had "voted that 200 acres of 
land be laid out for a parsonage for the parish, next to the river." 
This was doubtless intended to be the charter glebe right. 
Whether this was for the use of the first settled minister or for 
a minister of the Church of England was a question, and Colonels 
Hurd and Porter took the latter view, and were charged with 
endeavoring to secure this glebe right for an Episcopal clergy- 
man. Rev. Ranno Cossit. That the community was tremen- 
dously stirred appears from a so-called "Haverhill and New- 
bury" covenant, dated January 28, 1775, and numerously signed. 
The signers declared that the two colonels were "public enemies 
to the good of the community" and pledged themselves to hold 
no communication with either of them, "not so much as to 
trade, lend, borrow, or labor with them." To make this boycott 
complete, they further pledged themselves "not to hold any cor- 
respondence, nor have any dealings with those that hold with 
Cols. Hurd and Porter until they shall willingly make public 
satisfaction for what they have done in the premises." There 
is no record that "public satisfaction" was made, but a little 
later Colonel Porter's influence was lost through charges of dis- 
loyalty made against him, and Colonel Hurd's surroundings 
were made so uncomfortable for him that he returned to his 
old home in Boston two or three years later. No controversies 
are more bitter than those pertaining to church and religion. 

The salary of the minister was paid by taxation until and 
during the year 1814, though the opposition to this steadily 



13 

wishing to be left off the road, the town accepted as the lay- 
out this unique description, "as it is now trode." Down to the 
year 1800, however, little was accomplished in the matter of 
building what today would rightly be called roads. The need 
was recognized, highway surveyors were elected at each annual 
town meeting, labor on the highways was to be reckoned at 
3s or half a dollar a day for a man, and at 2s a day for an ox- 
team. Such taxes for roads as were voted were to be paid in 
labor, but the work was done indifferently. At one of the 
early meetings a committee was chosen "to settle with the old 
surveyors, and see who has worked and who has not," and at 
the same time it was "voted that the surveyors shall not call on 
them that has done the most work till the others has done their 
part." The roads were poor and would have been impassable 
for the vehicles of modern times. Improvement has been so 
gradual as at some periods to be imperceptible. An event in 
road construction was the completion of the Coos turnpike in 
1808. This extended from Haverhill Corner to Warren, connect- 
ing with the turnpike to Plymouth, and because the corporation 
building it made it a good road, it became the great thorough- 
fare for teams and travel for many years. More than anything 
else it contributed to the development and prosperity of Haverhill 
Corner, making it until the coming of the railroad the great 
stage center that it was. The changes made by the turnpike, 
the subsequent changes made by the railroad, with changes 
imminent in the near future resulting from state road construc- 
tion suggest how thoroughly essential are the best possible 
transportation facilities to the growth and prosperity of a com- 
munity. From its beginning Haverhill roads have been as 
good as those of neighboring towns, but this is not saying much. 
Only in recent years is it being recognized that prosperity fol- 
lows good roads, instead of good roads following prosperity. 
In the early days the roads were few and poor, meeting conditions 
of absolute necessity. 

The settlers made provision for schools at an early date, just 
how early is unknown. The earliest vote of the town on record 
is that of March 9, 1773, when it was "voted to hire a master 
to keep a town school this present year, and to raise £5 lawful 
money in specie for the use of schools." This seems a small 
sum, but it was as much as the entire amount raised to defray 



14 

all other town charges, and money was money. More was 
expended, since there is on record a receipt signed by Timothy 
Curtis for "£8 19s and 6d for teaching school five months and 
twenty days." Timothy Curtis is Haverhill's first schoolmaster 
of record. Where the school was kept is not known. The 
next year £35 was raised, and the year following £34, Timothy 
Curtis, school master. In 1786 the town was divided into four 
districts, the first extending from Piermont line to the Oliverian, 
the second from the Oliverian to the south line of the Fisher 
farm, North Haverhill, the third to Colonel Howard's bridge, 
near the county farm buildings, and the fourth to Bath line. 
These districts were all on the river. Divisions and subdivisions 
in later years increased the number of districts to twenty. Four 
schoolhouses were ordered built, and the sum of £100 was raised 
for the purpose. The sum of £60 was raised for the support 
of schools to be paid in wheat at 6s a bushel and Indian corn 
at 3s. Each district was to have the use of its own money, 
scholars were required "to attend school in their own district." 
In 1788 and 1789 additional sums were raised to finish these 
schoolhouses, which were crude affairs, and which were super- 
seded in 1805 by better buildings. From the beginning the 
support of schools by the town has been liberal. In recent years 
there has been marked progress. Today with the one town 
district, with two high schools, with the Woodsville district with 
its excellent high school, with instruction after approved mod- 
ern methods, with wise and efficient supervision, no town in New 
Hampshire furnishes better school facilities and privileges. 

The settlers were fully alive to the advantages arising from 
institutions for advanced education. When Governor Went- 
worth granted a charter for Dartmouth College in 1769, no 
site had been fixed for its location. Haverhill was one of 
several towns which sought to secure the college, and of the 
various locations suggested Haverhill was preferred by Governor 
Wentworth, 

The proprietors at a meeting held April 10, 1770, "voted to 
give Rev. Elitzar Wheelock D. D. 50 acres of land in Haverhill 
on Capt. John Hazen's Mill Brook, where there is a convenient 
waterfall for a mill, and to be laid in a convenient form for a 
mill, provided Dartmouth College should be located in Haverhill." 
A site for the college was selected just above this village (North 



15 

increased. The Haverhill Church had been organized inde- 
pendent of Newbury in 1790. In 1813 the sum of $200 was 
raised for preaching, "to be expended at the discretion of the 
selectmen," In 1814 the town voted to concur with the church 
in settling the Rev. Joel Mann as minister at a salary of $450, 
preaching to be one third of the time at the North meeting 
house and two thirds at the South meeting house. Mr. Mann 
declined the call and it does not appear that any money was 
appropriated. In 1815 it was voted to divide the town into 
two parishes "for ministerial privileges" — whatever they may 
have been — the south line of the Fisher farm to be the division 
line. With this vote, the town as a municipality seems to have 
abandoned affairs ecclesiastical. Methodists, Baptists, and other 
denominations had gained a foothold, the "toleration act" had 
been passed in 1807, and establishment was at an end. The 
old first church continues its work, in which is joined today by 
four Methodist Episcopal, one Congregational, one Protestant 
Episcopal, one Universalist, one Advent, and one Roman Cath- 
olic, while a regular Baptist, a Free Baptist and an Advent have 
since 1815 been organized and passed out of existence, as has 
also the North Parish Congregational Church. The example of 
the fathers has been followed and Haverhill has never suffered 
from lack of religious privileges. 

At the 1763 meeting of the proprietors, as already noted, it 
was voted to join the Newbury proprietors in looking out and 
clearing a road through Haverhill. Thus early the matter of 
roads, if not that of good roads, engaged attention. Ingress 
and egress were absolutely essential to the growth and prosperity 
of the settlement. This first road, so called, was out through 
the centre of the town over Morse hill, through No. 6 to the 
Coventry meadows, over Warren summit, down Bakers river to 
Plymouth. It was not much of a road, just a bridlepath. In- 
deed, it was ten years before an ox-team went through from 
Haverhill to Plymouth, an event which created great interest. 
Other roads were ordered cleared, the river road from Bath to 
Piermont line being the next, and in June, 1773, it was voted 
by the proprietors to give this road to the town "as it is now 
trode," Col. Asa Porter entering his dissent to the vote. This 
was laid out four rods wide, but it was hardly more than a 
bridlepath leading by the homes of the settlers, and these not 



16 

Haverhill). A subscription paper in aid of the college was 
started. There was little money, but there was land. John 
Hazen and Jacob Bayley of Newbury subscribed 1,000 acres 
each. Timothy Bedel subscribed 500 acres. Doctor Wither- 
spoon of Ryegate subscribed another thousand acres. Not 
less than 6,000 acres of the best land in Haverhill, Newbury, 
Ryegate and Bath were pledged. Colonel Asa Porter, graduate 
of Harvard, offered a valuable part of his estate, known in later 
years as the Southard farm. Colonel Bayley in behalf of the 
leading men of the towns interested went to Portsmouth and 
secured the endorsement of Governor Wentworth, to Newbury- 
port and enlisted the aid of the Littles, landed proprietors in 
the Coos country, and to Connecticut, where he laid the plans 
before Doctor Wheelock. He gave bonds to convey to the 
college a part of the Great Oxbow in Newbury, and to sell to 
the college all of the Little Oxbow in Haverhill at the cost of 
improvements, these consisting of a framed house (still stand- 
ing) and a large barn. He also agreed to put up the frame for a 
college building 200 feet long free of expense to the college. 
The Haverhill and Newbury people believed they had secured 
the college until in August, 1770, they learned that Doctor 
Wheelock had chosen Hanover. It need not be said that great 
was their disappointment. It need not be said either that 
Haverhill was the more desirable location. Nor need we pause 
to conjecture how different the course of Haverhill life and 
history might have been. It might have been, but it was not 
to be. Why Hanover was preferred has never yet been fully 
explained, but Eleazer Wheelock was not only as the boys still 
commemorate him in song "a very pious man," but a man 
who proposed to maintain his college under his own personal 
control, and there were able, scholarly men in Haverhill whose 
influence he may have feared would not be voluntarily made 
secondary to his. 

But the early settlers of Haverhill did not, because of this 
failure, abandon efforts to secure facilities for a more liberal 
education than the common schools afforded. As the settle- 
ment at the Corner grew, they began to plan for an academy. 
In 1792 a building was erected for an academy and other purposes 
(I will allude to the "other purposes" later), and in 1794 an 
academy charter was granted, the trustees named being Charles 



17 

Johnston, the Rev. Ethan Smith, John Page and Samuel Bliss. 
The petition for the charter stated that "a young gentleman of 
liberal education (Moses P. Payson, afterwards of Bath), emi- 
nently qualified for a preceptor, had been employed and that 
about thirty pupils had already engaged in pursuit of an educa- 
tion in the arts and sciences." They set forth the object of the 
institution to be "to promote religion, purity, virtue and morality, 
and for instruction in English, Latin and Greek languages; in writ- 
ing, music and the art of speaking; in geometry, logic, geography, 
mathematics and such other branches of science as opportunity 
may present." The first building, of wood, was burned in 1814, 
and the second, erected of brick a little later, still stands as 
Pearson Hall, meeting a need and performing a mission of its 
own. Among its early principals succeeding Mr. Payson were 
Stephen P. Webster, Isaac Patterson, Joseph Bell, names familiar 
to the older residents of the Haverhill of today. The Academy 
was one of the earliest in the state. Phillips at Exeter began 
its work in 1783. Appleton at New Ipswich was incorporated 
in 1789, Atkinson in 1790, and Gilmanton in the same year 
with Haverhill. Its influence in promoting culture and refine- 
ment, for which Haverhill was early notable, is hardly to be 
overestimated, while its wider influence in the life work of its 
thousands of pupils in town, state and nation is incalculable. 
Its centennial was appropriately observed in 1896, and it still 
continues its beneficent work under its old name, though now a 
part of the town public school system. 

Captain Hazen and his associates failed to secure the college, 
but they were alive to every opportunity to advance the interests 
of their town. Grafton County was set up in 1771. It embraced 
all its present territory, with the addition of Coos, a part of the 
present county of Carroll and some towns since annexed to 
Merrimack. There were to be two county seats, and the pro- 
prietors and settlers determined to secure for Haverhill the 
advantage of being the full shire town in which not only courts 
should be held, but the county offices located. Colonel John 
Hurd had large influence with the Provincial government at 
Portsmouth. The proprietors. May 12, 1772, chose Colonel Hurd 
agent to petition the Portsmouth government for holding one half 
the inferior courts, and one superior court in Haverhill, and 
for his "incouragement," they voted him 1,000 acres of the undi- 



18 

vided land in town, with the privilege of pitching it in square 
form in case he should succeed in having his petition granted. 
Colonel Hurd was in Portsmouth on business at the time, and 
Colonel Asa Porter was instructed to send a copy of the vote to 
Colonel Hurd by "the easiest method." There were no mails, 
and "the easiest method" was undoubtedly a journey to Ports- 
mouth by Colonel Porter himself. Colonel Hurd secured the 
courts, but did not secure his land. They paid his account for 
cash paid out, amounting to £3 12s but refused to allow his 
claim for the land voted him. In the warrant for the proprie- 
tors meeting held Feb. 25, 1774, was an article "to see if the 
proprietors will bear their proportion with Asa Porter Esq., 
Captain John Hazen, Deacon James Abbott, Andrew Savage 
Crocker, Esq. of the thousand acres of land which they voted 
John Hurd Esq. or any part of it." "Put to vote and passed 
in the negative. Tried by a vote if they will bear any part of 
it, and passed in negative." It is gratifying to note that the 
four men mentioned were not willing to be a party to this act of 
proprietary dishonor. 

The courts were brought to Haverhill in 1773. John Hurd 
was appointed Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Common 
pleas, and Asa Porter was one of the four Associate Justices. 

The proprietors made generous provision for a court house 
site, and the court house and jail were erected a little north of 
North Haverhill Village, west of the river road of today. The 
building was of wood, about 80 x 50 feet and two stories high, a 
somewhat pretentious edifice for the time, and Asa Porter, who 
was the agent to build it, was charged by a committee appointed 
by the court to investigate his accounts with being grossly extrav- 
agant. Charles Johnston and Jonathan Haley were added to 
the committee to complete the building and they recommended 
that it be done in "the plainest and most frugal manner." It 
was doubtless so done, as subsequent events indicated. 

During the War of the Revolution the sessions of the courts 
were suspended in Grafton County and the building fell into 
neglect. The courts, reorganized after the war, were held in it 
for several years, though there was a movement to remove 
the courts to the Corner, which with the ample water power at 
the Brook, and the enterprise of its leading citizens, was rapidly 
becoming the most important part of the town. In 1784 a 



19 

committee consisting of Charles Johnston, Moses Dow, Timothy 
Bedel and James Woodward was chosen by the Corner and 
Ladd-street people to advance the project of removal. It was 
an able committee. 

In 1792 Colonel Johnston and other citizens at the Corner 
erected a building for the proposed academy and "other pur- 
poses." The "other purposes" were in the second story. In 
June, 1793, Colonel Johnston, in behalf of its owners, offered this 
"commodious building" to the courts free of charge, reserving 
to themselves the right to hold a public school in the building 
when the courts were not in session. The court house on the 
North Haverhill plain was getting out of repair, and the hos- 
pitable and philanthropic offer of the Corner, where there were 
better taverns, was accepted, and the courts went to the Corner 
to stay. They were held in the second story of the academy 
building and its successor until the county erected a court house 
at the Corner in 1843. There was grief on the part of the resi- 
dents at North Haverhill and Horse Meadow at the loss of the 
courts, as a century later or so there was grief at the Corner 
over a similar loss. The courts and county offices returned to 
the north end of the town, — the extreme north end. But this 
is recent history. 

The courts, the academy, the taverns, centers for the various 
stage routes, the manufactures and industries at the Brook 
gave to the village at the Corner in its palmy days a tone and 
standing, a place in social and political life unsurpassed by any 
town in the state. 

Why called "the Corner"? Because it was the corner, and 
because it was a peculiar corner. Glance at the map of Haverhill 
on the souvenir medal I trust you have purchased today, — 
Haverhill is bounded on the south by Piermont, and Piermont 
is also a part of its northern and eastern boundary. 

Nine pairs of townships between Charlestown and the mouth 
of the Ammonoosuc were marked off in the early spring of 1760 
by Thomas Blanchard by order of Governor Wentworth. By 
this survey the southwest corner of Haverhill and southeast 
of Newbury would have been very near the present Bedel's 
bridge. These towns above Charlestown were each six miles 
long on the river except the upper pair, it being a little over seven 
miles from Bedel's bridge to the mouth of the Ammonoosuc. 



20 

When, in 1763, after nearly two years, work in clearing lands, 
building a mill, making preliminary surveys on the lands promised 
them by the governor for townships, Captain Hazen and Colonel 
Bayley went to Governor Wentworth for their charters, giving 
him the names of those whom they washed for associate grantees, 
they found the governor had arranged to add to their list the 
names of some twenty of his own friends. Hazen and Bayley 
naturally protested that, as they had been at large expense in 
making surveys and improvements, it would be unjust to them to 
admit twenty other proprietors, thus reducing the value of each 
of the shares by dividing the land between eighty instead of 
sixty proprietors. The governor insisted on his additional 
names, but suggested to Captain Hazen and Colonel Bayley 
that they take enough from the ungranted land south — Pier- 
mont and Bradford were not chartered until 1764 — to make up 
for the twenty additional shares. 

When they came to make their survey of the first two tiers 
of lots in 1763, they acted upon this suggestion and went a mile 
and 68 rods south of Bedel's bridge and set up their corners. 
Piermont and Bradford proprietors later found that their towns 
were short of the six miles on the river named in their charters, and 
trouble began. The story of the Piermont controversy is a long 
and interesting one. Newbury kept its extra mile and more, 
and Bradford remains a short town. The costly litigation be- 
tween the Haverhill and Piermont proprietors lasted till 1784, 
when it was finally settled by the following agreement: "All 
the meadow lots, all the house lots, and all the first division 
of 100 acre house lots (these were seven in number) as laid out 
and bounded by said proprietors of Haverhill, shall be and remain 
unto the said township and proprietors of Haverhill." This 
accounts for the jog in the southwest corner of the map of the 
town. Had the Haverhill proprietors lost their entire case, 
Haverhill Corner would have been a village in the northwest 
corner of Piermont, and the history of Haverhill would have been 
different from what it is. Fortunately for the town, its early 
settlers were able, sagacious, influential, persistent men and the 
Corner was saved to Haverhill. 

I have not time to speak of the courts as an educating and 
social influence. In the early days members of the bar rode 
the circuit, and at the trial of famous causes the court house 



21 

was thronged to listen to the arguments of Jeremiah Smith, 
Ezekiel Webster, George Sullivan, Levi Woodbury, Joel Parker 
and many others scarcely less eminent in their profession, while 
Haverhill as the county seat was the home of such lawyers 
as Moses Dow, Alden Sprague, George Woodward, John Nelson, 
David Sloan, Samuel Cartland and Joseph Bell. 

Among the early physicians of the town in practice down to 
the middle of the last century were Martin Phelps, Amasa 
Scott, Edmund Carleton, Ezra Bartlett, Ezra Bartlett, Jr., John 
Angier, Hiram Morgan and Phineas Spaulding, — honored 
names all. 

In the official and political life of the state and nation Haver- 
hill has had its full share of honors, hardly any other town in 
the state more. She has given the country no president, but 
one of her great-grandsons, Chester A. Arthur, filled with honor 
to himself and country that exalted office. An alumnus^ of the 
academy was for years a justice of the United States Supreme 
Court. A native son^ of Haverhill was United States senator, 
and for three years governor of the state. In the lower branch 
of Congress Haverhill has been honorably represented, has 
furnished the state with members of the executive council, 
and the two branches of the state legislature with presiding 
officers, as well as with members strong in influence and ability. 

Of Haverhill's patriotic devotion to the cause of country, yon- 
der monument this day speaks. Her greatest soldier, Timothy 
Bedel — and I do not forget that the name of Charles Johnston 
must be coupled with that of John Stark whenever the story 
of Bennington is told — was the ancestor of soldiers as well. 
His gallant service in the French and Indian Wars, was supple- 
mented by arduous service and heroic sacrifice in the War of 
the Revolution. Moody Bedel, a boy of twelve, was with his 
father. Col. Timothy Bedel, at the battle of Saratoga, and later 
served as private in Capt. Ezekiel Ladd's company in his father's 
regiment. Later still, as lieutenant-colonel of the 11th U. S. 
infantry, he was the hero of the memorable sortie on Fort Erie 
in the War of 1812. The son of Colonel Moody and grandson 
of Colonel Timothy, John Bedel was a lieutenant in the brigade 
of General Franklin Pierce in the Mexican War, and when the 
War for the Union broke out he went to the front as major of 
« Nathan Clifford. "• John Page. 



22 

the 3d New Hampshire Volunteers, rendered brilliant service, 
and was mustered out brevet Major-General. This is a family 
record in which Haverhill may justly take no small pride. 

Did time permit I might speak of the influence of Haverhill 
in other towns, in other states and other countries through 
her sons and daughters who have gone out carrying the Haverhill 
spirit and training with them everywhere. But it has been my 
object not so much to present a sketch of the history of the town 
for 150 years — that were impossible in a brief hour — as to call 
attention to the circumstances surrounding its settlement, the 
character of its settlers, the plans they made, the hardships 
they endured, the successes they won. 

These settlers were of two classes. There were men of liberal 
education, broad culture, untiring energy, and of property. 
They came to the wilderness to make permanent homes for 
themselves and their posterity. They appreciated the value 
of the church, the school, and of free civic institutions. Haverhill 
had a larger proportion of this class than had many surrounding 
towns, and they early gave the town prominence and leadership. 
There were others who came on foot bearing all their property 
on their shoulders. They were not so much helpers, as those 
needing help, and had not the more well-to-do furnished them 
shelter, food and work, they would have succumbed to the 
hardships of the time. 

And there were hardships. We can Uttle appreciate them or 
imagine the loneliness and privations of the wilderness. It 
was more than seventy miles to Charlestown. Haverhill in 
1765 had been settled three years. Claremont contained two 
famihes; Cornish one; Plainfield one; Lebanon three; Hanover 
one; Lyme three; Orford two; Piermont one. The roads were 
simply blazed forest trails. The houses were rude cabins, fish 
and game with the products of the field the food. There were 
no luxuries, few comforts. Furniture was of the rudest, mostly 
home made. Dishes were of wood and pewter. The toil was 
incessant. 

We cross today the bridge of one hundred and fifty years. 
We note the building of frame dwellings, the better furniture 
and household utensils, the entrance of china and silver, the 
carpeted floors, the ornamentation of walls, the stove and range 
superseding the fireplace, the establishment of schools and 



23 

academy, the erection of houses of worship, the building of 
roads, the chaise, the wagon, following the saddle and pillion, 
the turnpike, the famous stage coach and tavern days, the early 
bank, the newspaper, the improved farm methods and farm 
utensils and machinery, the erection of the roomy mansions, 
an aristocracy of wealth and culture, the postal service, the 
railroad, the telegraph, the electric wonders of modern times, 
the long procession of strong men and beautiful women, the 
sterling integrity and intelligence of the citizenship, the patri- 
otic devotion to country. There are family names worthily 
cherished and honored. There is a priceless wealth of com- 
mendable achievement. Others have labored, and we have 
entered into their labors. Our heritage is a goodly one. May 
we transmit it not only unimpaired, but enriched to our children. 

The exercises closed with the rendering of "Home Sweet 
Home" by the Woodsville Ladies' Quartette — Mrs. William L. 
Hartwell, Miss Luvia E. Mann, Mrs. Lillian Ray Miller, Mrs. 
Melvin J. Mann — and the Lord's Prayer was recited by the 
audience, led by Mr. Barstow. 




013 996 947 9 



